Search form

Search form

Sustainability

"Arvind is an organization that is built on the bedrock of responsible stewardship. Even as we have expanded our businesses, entered new product and service areas and adopted the new-age technology, this core principle remains our guiding beacon in our vision of ‘Fashioning Possibilities’".

The proverb, well begun is half done, is apt when it comes to sustainability. We believe that sustainability when systematically embedded at the source gets cascaded throughout the production line and the value chain. At Arvind, instead of just concentrating on tailpipe management, we have adopted input management as our preferred approach to sustainability.

We have identified six core inputs that are truly material to us and form the foundation of our business. Our policies, practices, and processes are geared not only to optimise utilization of these resources but also nurture their source and thereby ensure that they remain in abundant supply. Our focus is on managing, enriching and getting these inputs fundamentally right and thereby making our business sustainably sound.

Our sustainability philosophy is encapsulated in two words

‘Fundamentally Right’

The fundamentally right philosophy
won many accolades, including Asia’s
best first-time sustainability report
and was declared the joint winner for
the best materiality reporting award
at the Asia Sustainability Reporting
Awards 2016

We have identified six key elements that are truly central to our business. At Arvind, we believe the key to sustainability lies not just in tailpipe
management but designing our policies, processes, and practices to nurture these elements at their source and optimising their utilization. The focus is on getting these input management processes ‘Fundamentally Right’ and thereby making our businesses sustainably sound.

The objective is to enable our 30,000+ employees, to translate the 'Fundamentally Right' philosophy into practice in their day-to-day decisions across all six key inputs – Cotton, People, Money, Energy, Water, and Chemicals.

In each of these areas, we have achieved significant advances. For example, our Better Cotton initiatives are reducing the environmental impact of cotton cultivation. Imparting better Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) training to our FLMs has more than halved the injury rates

In FY15-’16, we recycled and re-used 10.88 million cubic liters of water. Our life-cycle approach to chemical management has resulted in savings, right from reduction or elimination of harmful fertilizers and pesticides in cotton cultivation to limiting the discharge of hazardous waste and recovery of salts from wastewater.

With prudent investments in e-commerce and garments, we are poised to benefit from these high-growth areas. Our efforts at energy efficiency have been rewarded by Arvind becoming the first Indian company to be awarded the ISO-50001:2011 certification in the 'Composite Textile Industry-Denim Fabric' category.

Core Inputs

Chairman’s
Message

Dear Stakeholder,

Arvind is an organisation with a rich legacy of responsible stewardship. While, it is built on a strong foundation of time tested values, it continues to remain modern in both outlook and decisions.

It is this synergy of age-old wisdom, modern management practices and new-age technology that has steered Arvind successfully through its sustainability journey and helped it deliver on its vision of 'enriching lifestyles'.

Keeping pace with the accelerated need for sustainability across the globe, we took large and rapid strides to make our operations more sustainable. Last year we unveiled our sustainability philosophy 'Fundamentally Right', this year to turn intent into wide-scale action, we are releasing our sustainability manifesto. The objective is to enable our 30,000+ employees, to translate the 'Fundamentally Right' philosophy into practise in their day-to-day decisions across all six key inputs - Cotton, People, Money, Energy, Water, and Chemicals.

Cotton is the most commonly grown non-food plant in the world, accounts for two and a half per cent of arable land, and provides income for more than 250 million people worldwide. Add to it, the water intensive nature of the crop, large-scale use of fertilizers and pesticides, genetic modification, plus certification concerns and we have a complex environmental and social challenge. To gain deeper insights into the efficacy of various cultivation methods, during the reporting period, we undertook a detailed lifecycle analysis of BCI, Organic & Conventional Cotton and charted new five-year roadmaps.

There exists a tight fit between Arvind's mission of 'Enriching Lifestyles' and the overarching purpose of the Sustainable Development Goals. Energy is one parameter that is crucial for achieving almost all of the Sustainable Development Goals – from eradication of poverty through advancements in health, education, water supply and industrialisation, to combating climate change. We continued to invest in processes, practices and technology to enhance our energy efficiency, and thus during the reporting period, Arvind became the first Indian company to be awarded the ISO-50001:2011 certification in the 'Composite Textile Industry-Denim Fabric' category. The goal is to follow a globally benchmarked approach to achieve continual improvement of energy performance, including energy efficiency, energy use and consumption.

The world is changing, stakeholder demands are changing even more rapidly. The only way to keep delivering, is to ensure that our key assets - our people, are equipped with new skills and methodologies. Thus, training was given added impetus during the reporting period and we introduced a range of programmes across hierarchies. Through a combination of intensive training and implementation of safety best practices, we recorded a 56% reduction in injuries.

We made prudent and strategic investments in potentially high-growth industry segments like brands and e-commerce. Additionally, we have also taken

a major position in Ethiopia and are building capacity for 2.8 million garments per month over the next couple of years. Arvind continued to contribute actively to the holistic upliftment of those on the margins of society. Our flagship programme 'Gyanda' which provides education to thousands of urban poor children, grew its footprint. We also mainstreamed a new initiative 'Arvind Clinics' to provide quality healthcare at extremely affordable rates.

This report delves deep into our triple bottom-line performance and I hope you find it interesting and informative.